Hitoshinaya, a Japanese restaurant with the ambience of a venerable "machiya" (a traditional wooden townhouse of Japan), opened on July 18 on the second floor of the North Wing at Haneda Airport's Terminal 1 in Ohta Ward, Tokyo.

The restaurant is the work of Tokyo Airport Restaurant Co., Ltd. The company "wants people from throughout Japan to enjoy a truly delicious meal," so it created the new establishment under the direction and instruction of Hiroshi Nagashima, one of the "modern masters" of the Japanese culinary world.

The restaurant is in fact three restaurants combined under one roof: Asagohan, Hitohachi and Surinagashi. Tokyo Airport Restaurant wanted to produce the atmosphere of a traditional machiya. Asagohan, which has seating for 25, is "a restaurant where patrons can dine any time of day on breakfast meals with flavors accentuated with dashi (Japanese soup stock made from fish and kelp)." Hitohachi, with 13 seats, is "a Japanese donburi (bowls of rice with various toppings) restaurant you can savor soups and various other ingredients all on one platter." Surinagashi, also with seating for 13, is "a restaurant with Japanese-style potage (traditional cooking) made with dashi and seasonal ingredients." Thus Hitoshinaya offers a diversity of styles in each adjacent establishment. All three offer counter seating only and are laid out so diners can enjoy watching the busy kitchen staff ply their trade.

The establishment's name, Hitoshinaya, means "to offer the best dish." The concept is "to narrow the menu down to one dish and aspire for it to be the ultimate version." Specializing in dashi, a key component of Japanese cuisine, Hitoshinaya makes use of seven traditional seasonings and develops its own original dash.

Business hours for Asagohan is 5:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., while the other two restaurants are open from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.